We Are Golden
by changenotcoins
Summary: At the wedding of his oldest daughter, Elliot receives an epiphany in the form of a beautiful woman in a little black dress. EO.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: The title comes from my new favorite song, **_**We Are Golden**_** by Mika. If you haven't heard it, it's worth a listen, as is all of his other fantastic music. The song itself doesn't really pertain to the story, I just love it. I was just thinking one day that Maureen is no longer a little girl (although Elliot would certainly like to keep her that way) and how absolutely adorable it would be to see Elliot in a tux, all in daddy mode as his eldest daughter gets married. I suppose it's just the hopeless romantic in me. ;)**

_We are not what you think we are, we are golden, we are golden._

After countless hours of mind boggling rummaging through stacks of paper memories, which only seemed to result in a cough from a cloud of dust rising up and nesting in his lungs, he had found the menace of a picture that he'd been searching for. Wedged between a photo of him receiving his detective rank from his captain when he still had hair and a photo of Kathy and her parents who leered at him from behind the camera, was a picture of Maureen, his oldest child, dressed in a white dress as she participated in a mock wedding at the tender age of only five, grinning at the camera with her infamous toothless grin.

Back then it was just a cliche all the children were curious about, one that held the promises of life that were to come. Little did she know, at the age where all she cared about was her Barbies and hanging out with Daddy, was that marriage was not all it was cracked up to be. One minute you're having a hasty wedding because you knocked up your girlfriend in high school and the next thing you know you're stuck in a loveless marriage. But now a childhood fantasy was no longer a memory but very much a reality.

A reailty that was fast approaching. He checked his watch; only two hours from now. He cursed under his breath at how absentminded he had become and went to put the photo away, but paused for a few seconds. He cracked a small smile and ran his fingertips over the film, savoring what was once daddy's little girl, an image that had become lost amongst time.

Trouble was, she was daddy's _big_ girl now, a _woman _who was about to make the greatest leap a person ever could. It coarsed through his mind at a rapid pace, knowing soon enough he would walk her down the aisle and give her away to another man. As reluctant as he may have been to do so, he couldn't very well hold her back just to curb his own desire. He had always been one to hold on but know he was forced to let go. It was _not_ a feeling Elliot Stabler particularly liked.

_Losing control_ were two of the most foreign words to him.

He shook his head in dismay and tucked the picture neatly into its previous hiding place where it would probably stay to collect even more particles for someone else to discover one day in the future.

He had always despised rented tuxes. He'd never professed to being a germophobe but just the thought of someone else having worn it previously made his insides churn. He buttoned the last few buttons on his dress shirt and slung an undone tie over his collar that he would attend to later. He looped his fingers around his keys and slipped his badge over the belt at his waist as he surveyed the room one last time.

He gulped heavily as a thought crossed his mind.

He had a _date_.

He had a date to _pick up_.

He had a date who was his _partner_.

This wedding was beginning to make his head spin.


	2. Chapter 2

He had never been so nervous in his entire life. Ironically, it was not because he was about to give his eldest daughter away to another man at her wedding.

It was because his date to said wedding was none other than his partner, Detective Olivia Benson.

_This _was his biggest dilemma.

He hated that the wedding dictators and frivolous, lovesick women of the world felt the need to put that he and a guest were cordially invited on the flawless invitation, scrawled on the paper in the fanciest script known to man. It made him feel exorbitantly obligated to bring a date because he knew showing up alone amongst all the other sappy couples would only serve to humiliate him more. But she was his only option. He had chased every other person in his life away, specifically the women that littered his ever changing world. He was appalled that Olivia had even agreed to be his date, considering their relationship had been less than golden as of late. All he had left was Olivia because Kathy... well, Kathy had moved _on_, in the form of a carpenter named Andy, or as he was known on the local cable television show, Handy Andy. Not that he _wanted_ to rekindle that flame that had burned out long ago with his first love, much to the chagrin of his children. He knew the marriage had been over before it had even begun.

He swallowed heavily and rapped his knuckles on the door. He could hear Olivia tell him to hold on for one second through the wooden frame. The hallway was so silent that he could hear her swear under her breath, swinging the door wide open to reveal his partner. She was bent forward, trying but not completely succeeding, to slip on her high heels over her ankles, grasping at the doorknob for leverage.

Her position gave him a clear view of the top of her dress. Specifically her breasts which were not _totally_ obscured by the lacy bra that was designed to hide them. He turned his head away to make sure she didn't catch him staring. When he figured it was safe to cease averting his eyes, he finally gave her a good look.

He had never seen her look so beautiful in the decade he had known her. Dressed in wedding attire from head to toe, she radiated beauty in the simplest but most extraordinary way. A black dress that every woman certainly longed to obtain clung to the curves and planes of her body, her tanned skin and chocolate eyes vibrant against the dark fabric. The long hair she possessed that usually fell haphazardly at her shoulders was now twisted back into an elegant hairstyle.

"Elliot," Olivia rolled her eyes and stepped closer to him, causing his stomach to twist into constricting knots. He was going to land in the hospital before the wedding even started if she kept enamoring him like this. "You forgot to fix your tie."

He looked down instantly, his brow furrowed in confusion. He thought he had dressed himself quite adequately but it must have slipped his mind. Many things tended to leave him altogether where Olivia Benson was concerned.

The tying of the tie had fallen by the wayside because of a distraction.

_Olivia._

She was so close to him now that he could inhale her scent; the smell that enticed him was a mixture of coconut and vanilla. He squinted his eyes briefly, breathing her in for just one uninterrupted moment. She was so rarely in such close proximity and he relished the feeling that washed over him.

"Elliot?"

His eyes snapped open in enough time to witness her head cock to the side, fingers still lingering over the end of the fabric of his tie. "Are you okay?"

She phrased the question with a tone lilted with concern, her fingers leaving the tie and dallying on his lapels. He was at a loss for words in her presence but it was for a different reason; what the hell was he _doing_? This was Olivia Benson, who was supposed to be his best friend and his partner. This was not a woman that he could fantasize about or a woman he even had a chance in hell with. He desperately needed to stop fooling himself and grow a pair of balls before she wised up to why exactly his breathing had shallowed and why he felt as if his knees would buckle underneath him.

"Just wedding jitters," Elliot lied through grit teeth. "I guess I am pretty nervous."

"I would be too if I had to walk my daughter down the aisle and hand her away to some kid I barely know."

"Scott is not the problem," he replied. "I always knew this day would come eventually but reality is just beginning to sink in. I'll be lucky if I get a Sunday phone call from her after this. She'll be more interested in her new husband than her old man."

"You _know_ that is not true," Olivia protested. "Maureen, and all of your children for that matter, love you to pieces."

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe so."

Olivia decided to ignore his blatant brush off. He knew exactly how much his children adored him but something was bothering him and paving the way for him to become his usual brooding and stubborn self. His normally vibrant blue eyes were nebulous now and his gaze seemed so far away from where it should have been. His body posture had shifted from defensive and cautious to just plain aloof. He was distancing himself from her and she knew him so well that she braced herself for the ripple effect whatever thoughts he had would cause. Elliot Stabler was notorious for being a ticking time bomb and the explosion that was inevitable was scratching the surface.

"I hate to rain on your joyous parade, but if we don't leave now, you _will _miss your daughter's wedding."

He urged her out the door with no other words, his hand instinctively brushing over the small of her back as they departed. The gesture sent chills coursing throughout his entire body and he removed his hand, feeling as if it were bursting into flames.

He tried to tell himself to keep it together but he knew he would eventually fall apart like he always did.


End file.
